BIAFRA : Biafra principle

 

if you didn't just bump into someone unexpectedly - the horror. That you don't ask afterwards: "Just a cup of coffee?" There have been far fewer conversations with far fewer people. Suddenly I notice that I get stuck with newspaper interviews; a bit 'hanging' like in the old days on the street. Sheila Sitalsing is a columnist for de Volkskrant , I like to read her, and now she was interviewed by her own newspaper. She tells about her Surinamese husband, who went through the curfew in that country after the December murders. Coincidence: I am married to a Surinamese man, who also experienced that curfew in Suriname. Apparently they went to the same secondary school, although that is less coincidental in Paramaribo (there were three pre-university schools.)

Through the experiences of her husband, Sitalsing tries to put the lockdowns and measures in the Netherlands into perspective. She also finds the major change after corona unbelievable. "The rest of the world is constantly haunted by disasters, and people really don't live by it any differently."

I also know the stories of my husband: that in Suriname you simply joined a long queue, even if you did not know what that queue was waiting for. Bread? Rice? Just you wait.

My husband also likes to hold up a mirror to the Dutch, because parties and parties, is that your greatest loss?

It can always get worse, it is true. A whole generation of Dutch have been brought up with the Biafra argument; there, one million people died from war and famine between 1967 and 1970. "Think of the children in Biafra." It was only as an adult that I learned where Biafra lay; that it was a rebellious part of Nigeria.

The Biafra argument never really hit the mark, because as is known, people tend to compare themselves to their neighbors. If necessary with their neighboring countries. Belgium. A bit with Suriname, because of old relations. But with the former Biafra? Congo?

Those countries have never been a guideline to the world, as the Scandinavian countries were, and one day, remember, the US ...

There is that other argument: that "those people there" are used to famine, apartheid and massacre. Old-right liked to use it. Extremely untrue and ineffective for that matter.

In the Netherlands, a cabinet resigns and nothing changes in daily life. If that's a privilege at all, it's one you want to share with as many countries as possible.

The US is holding its breath for the inauguration. I was sure not in my lifetime. But precisely because Americans are still amazed by presidents who are already being shot during their inauguration, they may live 'very differently': guerrilla style.

Stephan Sanders writes a column at this place every Monday.